calls upon the Resident to have the rate
reduced, or to explain the grounds upon which it has been made; or if
the sipahee has a dispute with his numerous co-sharers, the Resident
is called upon to settle it. If the King's troops have trespassed, if
the crops have suffered from calamities of season or marauders, or
the village has been robbed, the sipahee refuses to pay, and demands
a remission of the Government demand; and if he does not get it,
appeals in the same manner to the Resident. If a sipahee be arrested
or detained for defalcation, a demand comes for his immediate
release; and if his crops or stock be distrained for balance, or
lands attached, the Resident is called upon to ascertain and explain
the reason why, and obtain redress. All such distraint is represented
as open robbery and pillage.

It is not at all uncommon for a sipahee to obtain leave of absence
from his regiment three or four times to enable him to prosecute the
same case in person at Lucknow, though he might prosecute it just as
well through an attorney. He often enjoys himself at his home while
his attorney prosecutes his claim, if he really has any, at Lucknow.
The commanding officers of his regiment and company of course believe
all he says regarding the pressing necessity for his presence at
Lucknow; and few of them know that the cases are derided in the
King's Courts, and that the Resident could not possibly decide them
himself if he had five times the establishment he has and full powers
to do so. If the Resident finds that a sipahee has lent his name to
another, and reports his conduct, he makes out a plausible tale,
which his commanding officer believes to be true; the Commander-in-
Chief is referred to; the case is submitted to the Governor-General,
and sometimes to the Court of Directors, and a voluminous
correspondence follows, till the Resident grows weary, and the
sipahee escapes with impunity. In the mean time, troops of witnesses
have been worried to show that the sipahee has no connection whatever
with the estate, or thing claimed in his name, or with the family to
whom his name was lent. Many a man has, in this way, as above stated,
been robbed of an estate which his family had held for many
generations; and many a village which had been occupied by an honest
and industrious peasantry has been turned into a den of robbers. In
flagrant cases of false claims, the Resident may get the attorney,
employed by the sipahee in prosec